The Week in the Shadow of the Exalted Cross, by Jennifer Gregory Miller

By Jennifer Gregory Miller, Catholic Culture, Sept. 12, 2021

Beginning with Sunday, this week unfolds a mosaic of feast days that all relate to the cross of Christ and refer back to Sunday’s Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Sunday, or the “Lord’s day” is the “primordial feast” and “basis and center of the liturgical year” (as quoted in the Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy, 95). The Liturgy of Sunday, including the prayers and readings, lays the framework or theme for the whole week. Sundays take precedence throughout the year except in the liturgical seasons of Ordinary Time and Christmas, where the solemnities and feasts of Our Lord are celebrated when they fall on Sunday (see General Norms of the Liturgical Year and Calendar). This Sunday is an example of that exception, as we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross …

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